The Girl Who Waited
by Bella E Haliday
Summary: In the twelve years Amelia Pond waited for the Doctor, she had three near encounters with him. Oneshot.


Eight-year-old Amelia Pond, her hand held tight by Aunt Sharron, and her red hair damp after the light rain, scowled as she looked scanned the shopping centre for something interesting to do. She was being punished she knew, for biting her psychiatrist, or else Aunt Sharron would have agreed to let her stay at home. It wasn't Amelia's fault that she had had to bite the poor psychiatrist, who had been quite a nice woman, but she had been insisting that the Raggedy Doctor wasn't real, and Amelia rather hated that.

Amelia knew the Raggedy Doctor would come back for her eventually, he had promised.

She glowered at the floor. He had promised five minutes.

Returning to her examination of the shopping centre, Amelia watched a blonde woman in a union jack shirt pushing her way through the crowd. As the masses of people milling around parted to let her through, Amelia noticed it.

A navy blue police box, standing discretely by the entrance.

A tug on her hand reminded her that Aunt Sharron was standing beside her. She had been examining a display for the last five minutes, allowing Amelia to observe the crowd, but now wanted to move on to the next shop. And Amelia rather desperately needed to reach the blue box.

She knew Aunt Sharron would never let her go after it on her own. After all, this was supposed to be her punishment.

Thinking for a moment -weighing the pros and cons, the risks, the guarantee that she would be punished- Amelia suddenly bent low and bit Aunt Sharron on the wrist_._ Her Aunt cried out, and in her shock let go of Amelia's hand, and the young girl bolted as soon as she was released.

She ran, parting the crowd with more difficulty than the blonde woman, and heard vaguely the sounds of her aunt shouting after her, and the sound of whirring, whinging screeching klaxons: a noise she knew immediately.

She caught sight of the police box once again, as people moved in and out of her line of sight. She was close to it now, and there was no mistaking it from this distance.

She felt a hand brush her wrist, and looked round, expecting to see Aunt Sharron, but there was no one there. She turned back towards the police box- but it was gone, an empty space where it had been standing.

"Amelia!"

This time she did not turn, not even when her aunt's hand enclosed around her wrist.

She craned her neck, trying to see if she had simply lost sight of the police box, but it was gone, and she sighed in frustration. She had been so close.

But he would come back one day, he had promised.

. . .

Amelia and Rory (eleven-years-old) were sitting at the bus stop- Amelia re-reading her favourite book 'Pandora's Box', Rory with his nose buried in a comic. They had been waiting for the bus for almost twenty minutes, and had long since ended their conversation- a disagreement about the existence of the Raggedy Doctor.

Rory finished his comic and unzipped his school bag to stow it safely inside.

He stood and glanced up and down the road.

"I still can't see the bus".

Amelia ignored him.

"It's been twenty minutes".

Again, she ignored him.

She _hated _people telling her the Raggedy Doctor wasn't real. They ought to know better. She wouldn't be so insistent if she weren't absolutely certain that he was real.

Or as Rory would have it, she was just stubborn.

But Amelia knew better. The Raggedy Doctor was real, and he was coming back. One day.

"Don't ignore me Amy".

"Don't call me Amy".

She loved her name: Amelia Pond, like a name from a fairy tale.

"Don't ignore me _Amelia_".

She scowled at him, putting down her book.

She opened her mouth to reply, but a noise she had heard only a few times, but remembered as well as she remembered her own voice.

A screeching, wheezing, whinging, noise of klaxons moving together. The noise of a blue police box materialising or dematerialising.

She glanced at Rory. She could see in his face that he had heard it too.

"That's it!" she said excitedly jumping out of her seat "That's the Raggedy Doctor's blue box! That noise!"

"I'm sure it's just a car or something," mumbled Rory.

Amelia wasn't listening. She pulled her schoolbag onto her shoulder and left the bus shelter. She listened to the now waning noise and tried to determine where it was coming from.

Deciding it was originating from the next block, quite the opposite direction from where they were headed. Despite this, she set of at a run.

"Amelia!"

Rory teetered on the pavement for a moment.

"Amelia, the bus is coming!"

He sighed and set off after her.

Amelia had rounded the corner at a run. She saw it then, the navy blue police box that filled so many of her drawings and was the subject of so many of her models. She paused at the corner to admire it; it was still emitting the loud groan-like noise.

Rory ran into her.

"Ouch" he said as he steadied himself, "Why'd you run off?" he demanded.

Amelia turned and glared at Rory.

"Because that's his police box! The Raggedy Doctor's" she pointed at the box over her shoulder.

Rory glanced up, "what are you talking about?" he asked.

Amelia turned around again immediately, and saw to her dismay, that the box was gone. The noise had died out. She was too late.

"It was there!" she cried, she turned on Rory furiously; "You heard it! You heard it, didn't you?"

"What? I-I- Amelia, I don't know…"

"You did!"

Amelia looked half-mad, and Rory knew better than to argue with her. "Okay, okay, I heard it" he said, his voice shaking slightly.

Amelia nodded. Rory had heard it. He knew she was right. He knew the Raggedy Doctor was real. That was what mattered to Amelia now. Missing him again didn't matter. He would be back one day.

He had promised.

. . .

By age sixteen, Amelia Pond had outgrown the whimsical, fairy-tale like quality of her name, and thus shortened it to Amy, something she had previously despised. She still believed in her Raggedy Doctor, and was still certain he would one day return, but she spoke about him less often these days. Growing up into the world of make-up and boyfriends had pushed him from her mind.

These days she only spoke about him when someone else mentioned him, someone else that was usually Mels.

"Tell me about the Raggedy Doctor again"

"Oh Mels, don't encourage her!" cried Rory, as the three walked down the high street.

"He's a time traveller" smiled Amy, "and he eats fish fingers and custard".

They had spent most of the afternoon browsing in shops, laughing and joking, generally enjoying a day off school.

"No one eats fish fingers and custard," said Rory, rolling his eyes. He had heard this story so many times he knew his interruptions by heart.

"He has a swimming pool in his library," said Amy.

"In his police box?"

"Yes Mels".

"But he's not a police man".

"No he's a doctor".

At that moment, a man ran past Amy, knocking into her slightly as he did so. He was tall, slender and had a mess of fluffy brown hair. He was wearing a long brown coat and an instantly recognisable (though surprisingly pristine) suit. He even had the shoes.

Amy gawked at him as he ran past her. It was impossible, because that man was not her Raggedy Doctor. But that suit…

A red headed woman pushed past the trio (Rory and Mels did not seem to have noticed that Amy had frozen) and hurried after the man. "Doctor!" the woman cried, and Amy broke into a run after them, ignoring the surprised expressions of both Rory and Mels.

She overtook the woman easily, and almost ran into the man, who had stopped to wait for his companion.

She stopped in front of him.

"Where did you get those clothes?" she demanded.

"What?" asked the man, surprised.

"Those clothes. I've seen them before. Where did you get them? Do you know the Raggedy-?"

A cry interrupted her, "Doctor!"

The red haired companion had reached them, "Doctor we've got to go!"

"Right you are Donna" said the thin man, he looked at Amy, "I'm sorry, I've got to go" he said and he hurried away, taking his red haired companion with him.

Amy watched them go, confused.

Rory and Mels ran up to her.

"You have got to stop running off like that" scowled Rory, "What was so important this time?"

"I- uh, I thought I saw someone I knew" said Amy, rather pathetically.

Mels gave her a knowing look. "Your Raggedy Doctor?" Amy's friend asked.

Amy shook her head.

"No".

She scowled at the ground, and realised what she had been too stubborn to realise these last nine years. The Raggedy Doctor wasn't coming.

She sighed.

"The Raggedy Doctor doesn't exist".

. . .

* * *

Just a oneshot that came into my head after I re-watched the Eleventh Hour: what would make Amelia Pond, the girl who had bit four psychiatrist, hit the man she had been waiting for for twelve years over the head with a cricket bat?


End file.
